AFROBEATS ON SOCIAL MEDIA: TRANSNATIONAL FLOWS, INTERCULTURAL FORMATIONS, AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

ABSTRACT Over the last few years Afrobeats, a contemporary African music from, has steadily been gaining recognition in the global popular culture space. It is not uncommon to see videos of young people dancing to Afrobeats songs circulating on the internet. With the advent of social media platforms like TikTok and their participatory practices, this phenomenon has increased exponentially. This study explores the transnational flow of, and engagement with, Afrobeats within the global sphere. By focusing on TikTok and Youtube as a social mediascape, this study examines the influence of the intersection of social media practices and Afrobeats on digital socio-cultural processes. Guided by the overall research question: how are digital Afrobeats cultures shaping social interaction on social media?, this research combines a number of techniques and methods to understand Afrobeats’ influence on socio-cultural processes. It primarily employs digital methods techniques, using software for collecting and visualising data from TikTok and YouTube. These techniques and tools are combined with digital ethnography, and expert interviews. The study finds that through creative choreographing, and adoption of networked practices TikTokers create a transnational network of Afrobeats content which increases the potential of Afrobeats content, and by extension Afrobeats music, to be encountered across the world. Successful Afrobeats creators on the platform are shaping global popular culture beyond the platform. Furthermore, Afrobeats - a seemingly nonpolitical music form, together with digital platform affordances, is mediating the congregation of transnational and intercultural collectives based on shared socio-political history and experiences. This is achieved through the evocation of collective memories tied to revolutionary and political music of musicians like Bob Marley and Fela Kuti. Finally, this study finds that there is an emergence of a global shift in self-presentation strategies of diasporic Africans from Blackness to Africanness. This shift is tied to the longing of a homeland, and the pride associated with the success of Afrobeats.